TO: gwhyte@advtech.co.za

Subject: URGENT FORMAL COMPLAINT: ACADEMIC INTEGRITY CRISIS, Ethical Failures, and Unprecedented Decline at FIS – Need for IMMEDIATE ADvTECH Intervention

Dear Mr. Geoff Whyte, Group CEO, and ADvTECH Leadership Team,

This email serves as a formal and final complaint regarding the severe administrative negligence, ethical failures, and resultant academic crisis unfolding at Flipper Internatiinal School (FIS) (Ethiopia) under the current local management. We are escalating this issue directly to the Group level due to the local administration's defensive and entirely inadequate response.
The core of this crisis is the systemic failure of the current administration, specifically Mr. Willem, to maintain basic academic and labor standards, threatening the reputation and license of the school.

I. Unprecedented Institutional Decline and Staff Exodus
This level of crisis is a failure of the current governance model and is unprecedented in the history of FIS.
• Historical Failure: The kind of mass teacher exile, widespread staff dissatisfaction, and rapid degradation of educational quality now witnessed has never occurred under the previous ownership of FIS. This proves that the current crisis is not a function of market conditions but a direct, avoidable failure of the current ADvTECH led management.
• Hostile Environment and Disrespectful Treatment: The unaddressed grievances and unrespectful, dismissive treatment by Mr. Willem toward both parents and long serving staff including the over 40 experienced teachers and assistants who have left in the past three months constitute a profound failure of ADvTECH's ethical standards and management protocol.
• Labor Escalation: The crisis has moved beyond internal HR management. The Teachers’ Labour Union is currently escalating their issues regarding working conditions, unmanageable workloads, and administrative failures to the Ethiopian Labour Association. This confirms a recognized, systemic labor dispute, which the Labour Proclamation No. 1156/2019 addresses as grounds for formal action against the employer.

II. DIRECT ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND ETA COMPLIANCE BREACH
The local administration has taken actions that represent a direct, critical violation of the standards required for private school accreditation in Ethiopia:
• Breach of Facility and Accreditation Standards (ETA Risk): The Science Laboratories and the Library have been converted into general classrooms. This action constitutes a DIRECT BREACH of the Ethiopian Education and Training Authority (ETA) facility standards, particularly for a school offering international curricula (AS/A-Level) that mandates specialized, dedicated facilities for practical science and research. The ETA will view this as an immediate and fundamental failure to meet the minimum standards for program delivery, placing the school's accreditation at imminent risk.
• Unacceptable Elementary Class Sizes: The Elementary section is managing classes with 30+ students without assistant teacher support. This violates expected quality standards and further compromises the "conducive learning environment" required by the ETA.

III. Irrecoverable Experienced Teachers Loss and Corporate Risk
The staff members are fleeing the school, the principal, the vice principals, core subject teachers across grade levels like Mr Mohammed, Mr Hassen and now Mr. Rajif. Retaining these people and others is now a matter of urgent risk mitigation for the ADvTECH Group as it is difficult to find competent candidates in the middle of academic year as we are witnessing the quality of teachers being hired to replace those leaving the school is concerning, as many of them lack experience with the Cambridge curriculum. It is therefore not easy to let go of teachers who are already well versed and experienced in this curriculum.
• Guaranteed Student Failure: Losing Mr. Rajif, our top A-Level Physics teacher, guarantees academic failure for many examination bound students who rely on his irreplaceable, specialized expertise mid-year.
• Regulatory Threat: This combination of staff failure, the destruction of core academic facilities, and unmanageable class sizes forms the basis of a formal complaint being prepared for submission to the Ethiopian Education and Training Authority (ETA) and the Ethiopian Labour Association.

Call for Immediate Corporate Intervention
We insist that ADvTECH Group management intervene immediately to:
• Direct the local administration to table an immediate, substantive, and competitive retention offer to resigning teachers.
• Initiate an immediate, independent corporate investigation into the administrative negligence, the structural facility changes (conversion of labs/library), and the ethical conduct of the local management.

Failure to demonstrate immediate and decisive action will result in the formal submission of our complaint to the ETA and the Ethiopian Labour Association, concerned local and international medias severely damaging the corporate image of ADvTECH.

We await your urgent, personal attention to this critical matter.

Sincerely,


A group of Concerned Parents